To Have And To Hold: The Wedding Belles Book 1

by Lauren Layne

  Seth linked his fingers in hers. “Take me home, Baldwin.”

  She laughed. “You know, for such a rich, savvy guy, you can be a total dork.”

  “I like to think it reveals my vulnerable side.”

  She glanced up at him suspiciously. “Do you have a vulnerable side?”

  “I do. Her name is Brooke.”

  Her lips parted slightly as happiness washed over her. “You know I’m already going to sleep with you, right? You don’t have to woo me with romance.”

  “No? In that case . . .” He lowered his mouth to her ear. “Take me upstairs so I can fuck you. Hard.”

  Brooke’s thighs clenched in want, but she didn’t have to be told twice.

  On autopilot she made it through the front door, said hello to Christian, the nighttime doorman, and managed to get Seth into the elevator before dragging him against her.

  He shoved her against the wall of the elevator, gripping her chin with one hand as the other slid down her hip, kneading the soft flesh as he nipped at her mouth.

  Seth let out a low growl when the elevator jerked to a stop a second later. “Seriously?”

  Brooke giggled, the sound happy and girlish. “This isn’t a Tyler high-rise. There are only six floors, and I’m the fourth.”

  “Just as well,” he said, against her neck. “Now I won’t have to get you naked in the elevator.”

  His hand shot out, opening the elevator door before it could shut again, and he tugged her forward and out into the hallway with such sexy authority, that for a moment Brooke thought she might want to be stripped down and seduced in the elevator, spectators be damned.

  “Which way?”

  Brooke’s apartment was the first door on the right, and though she expected him to pull her close the second they stepped inside, he surprised her by stopping to look around first, keeping a tight grip on her hand.

  Not that there was much to see. Her condo in LA had been nearly three times the size of her apartment here, and the furniture she’d had shipped from California looked horribly out of place, the light wood and white linens of her West Coast lifestyle clashing with the old walls and dark flooring of her New York place.

  “It’s nice,” he said.

  Brooke shrugged, seeing it through his eyes and realizing how horribly temporary it looked. She wanted to settle in. She’d tried. But everything looked sort of mismatched, and not in the quirky, eclectic way. It was more the disorganized mess of someone with an identity crisis.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  She glanced up, surprised to find him looking at her instead of the apartment. The question was so simple, so no-bullshit that she felt herself nearly crumbling in the face of his basic, direct question.

  She didn’t even know that she wanted to crumble.

  But being here in a home that wasn’t yet fully home, with a man who liked her, she felt a strange sense of pain and happiness at the same time, and she felt . . .

  Confused.

  Something that felt suspiciously like tears pricked at the corner of her eyes and she frowned. Oh no. Not now. She hadn’t cried once. Not in the days after Clay went to jail, not when every single client had left.

  It made no sense that this would be the moment where she felt the most fragile.

  She blinked rapidly and did the only thing she could think of to ward off whatever unfounded breakdown was on the horizon.

  She threw herself at Seth.

  He grunted in surprise but caught her easily, his arms going around her as she grabbed a handful of his hair and pulled his mouth down to hers.

  She raked her teeth against his lip just a bit harder than was nice, and he pulled back slightly, his eyes puzzled. Searching.

  Brooke shook her head. “Please.”

  For a second, she thought he wouldn’t understand what she was saying. Wouldn’t understand that she was begging him to help her forget.

  But then he pulled her to him, kissing her roughly as his palms molded possessively over her back, and she smiled.

  He got it. He definitely got it.

  Seth’s hands weren’t gentle as he tore at her clothes, and hers were greedy right back, shoving his coat to the floor and tugging at his shirt so hard a button flew off.

  He growled against her neck. “You’ll pay for that.”

  “Yeah?” she said a little breathless. “Charge it to the Belles.”

  “Not the type of payment I had in mind.”

  And then his hands were undoing the buttons of her pants, his hand sliding inward until he rubbed against the front of her panties.

  Seth drew in a hiss of air. “You’re so wet.”

  “Seems to be a constant state with you,” she said, her voice breathless.

  His hand slipped down further, one finger easing under the elastic and stroking against her damp flesh.

  Seth’s groan mingled with her own as he caressed her sensitive skin with light, teasing strokes.

  She arched against his hand, trying to get more contact, and instead of torturing her further, a finger slid into her with one slick satisfying thrust.

  “Oh God,” she said, her head falling against his shoulder. “Oh God, that feels good.”

  He slipped another finger inside of her and began pumping them into her steadily, and without even thinking about it, she began to ride his hand, shamelessly, wantonly. Seth kissed the sensitive skin of her neck as he rubbed his thumb roughly against her clit, and she pivoted her hips onto his hand in desperate, aching need.

  She wanted the dirty, unabashed moment to last forever, but he found her rhythm almost immediately, and suddenly her orgasm was tearing out of her in a harsh cry that seemed to echo off the walls.

  Brooke’s body immediately went into recovery mode, her knees buckling.

  Seth slid his free arm around her, his mouth moving to her ear. “I’ve got you.”

  Brooke slumped against him, letting him absorb her, giving in, just for a moment, to the boneless pleasure of losing one’s mind.

  Seth adjusted his hand slightly, pulling out of her panties, but resting there against the vee of her thighs. She had the fleeting thought that she should be embarrassed, but instead she felt satiated.

  Wanted.

  Beautiful.

  When her breathing returned to normal, she kissed his shoulder in an absentminded thank-you before pushing back and looking up at him.

  He gave her a quiet, private smile that made her tummy flip before dipping his head and capturing her lips in a sweet, pulling kiss that was just the right amount of tender and hot. Brooke’s hand wandered downward, her palm cupping him through the expensive fabric of his suit pants. She smiled against his mouth when she found him rock hard.

  Seth groaned. “Find something you like?”

  “I’m not sure yet,” she said, pulling his bottom lip between her teeth and nipping lightly. “I think I’m going to need a closer look.”

  His breath caught as she slowly lowered to her knees in front of him, holding his gaze as she very slowly unfastened his pants.

  Brooke licked her lips as she pulled down the zipper, and Seth muttered a harsh oath before one hand tentatively came up to the side of her head as though he might need to hold on for balance.

  And she was firmly committed to making sure that he did.

  Brooke greedily shoved his pants and briefs over his lean hips, making a little breathy sigh of pleasure when his cock sprang free.

  “Update,” she said, glancing up his body and finding him watching her once more. “I definitely like what I see.”

  “Show me how much you like it,” he said on a husky rasp, his hips hilting forward so he brushed against her parted lips.

  Happy to.

  She extended her tongue, swirling it around his head before parting her lips and taking him all the way inside her mouth.

  “Ah. That’s it,” he said, the fingers on her hair becoming a bit rougher. “That’s it, baby. Oh God.”

  Brooke loved him w
ith her mouth, alternating between slow, savoring sucks and teasing flicks of her tongue. She laved the underside of his steel-hard cock with her tongue and coddled his balls with one hand, which caused him to emit a low growl. He had her head with both hands now, and sensing that he wanted to take control, Brooke stilled so that he was using her mouth, his hips doing all the work as he plunged in and out.

  “Damn it, Brooke. I can’t—I’m going to—”

  She nodded, wanting it. Wanting the taste of him.

  But even as he swore, he was tugging her to her feet, capturing her chin with his thumb and forefinger and stamping a hard kiss across her lips.

  “I need to be inside you. Now.”

  Brooke didn’t have to be told twice. She took his hand and led him to the couch, holding his gaze as she walked backward.

  “Here?” he asked, lifting his eyebrows.

  In response, Brooke quickly kicked off her shoes, stripped off her pants and underwear, and then very slowly knelt on the couch so that she was facing the window, her forearms resting on the padded couch arm as she looked back at him over her shoulder.

  Seth needed no further invitation. His eyes traveled the line of her bare ass and hips before his hand reached out and followed the same motion, palming her butt as he knelt behind her.

  “You need to be taken on the couch, baby?” he murmured, running a palm down her spine before resting it in the small of her back and pushing down slightly so that her ass tilted up to him.

  Her only response was to circle her hips so that her butt pressed against him suggestively, and he groaned, sliding a hand between her legs and stroking her clit as he lined up against her opening.

  “You better be holding on,” he said roughly.

  And then he plunged forward in one hot, firm stroke.

  Yes. Yes, this is what she wanted. Needed.

  Seth’s hands found either side of her hips, holding her still as he withdrew slowly, only to push forward hard and fast, just the way she wanted it.

  “Harder,” she said, her head dipping forward, her hair falling in her face. “Take me harder.”

  Over and over he slammed into her. He wasn’t gentle, and she didn’t want him to be. She rolled her hips, arching back to meet his every thrust.

  And though it was good—damn good—she couldn’t resist taking more. Her hand slid down between her legs, stroking herself in tiny circles.

  “I’m going to come,” he ground out, his pace quickening. “I wish you could see yourself like this. Watching you in the reflection of the window . . . I thought nothing could beat your mouth, but this is better.”

  Brooke snuck a glance over her shoulder, and the savage look on his face was all she needed to explode, this orgasm even more intense than the last one.

  “Fuck,” he said as she began to clench around him. “Fuck.”

  She felt him jerk, felt his fingers dig in hard to the soft flesh of her hips as he came inside her in a heart-stoppingly perfect moment of intimacy.

  Brooke collapsed face-first onto the couch, and Seth fell with her, carefully maneuvering them so that her back was to his front.

  It should have been awkward. Her with her shirt and no pants, him with his pants around his ankles and his shirt half-unbuttoned.

  But neither seemed to care as he slid an arm beneath her head before the other came around her and pulled her even closer.

  She opened her mouth, desperate for something witty to say. A casual little quip like the women of Sex and the City always had at the ready.

  But she didn’t want a quip. Wasn’t sure she wanted casual, either.

  Hell, Brooke wasn’t sure what she wanted.

  All she knew was that she didn’t want him to leave.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  SETH WASN’T ENTIRELY SURE what he was expecting from a private investigator.

  A Hawaiian shirt, maybe. Or perhaps a cheap leather jacket and sunglasses worn indoors. An off-the-rack brown suit that was too big in the shoulders.

  But whatever it was he was expecting, it certainly wasn’t Tommy Franklin.

  The PI Seth was a heartbeat away from hiring to do some digging on Neil Garrett was . . . normal.

  Tommy was slightly taller than average and had the broad, bulky frame of a man who liked his carbs but tried to combat that affection with plenty of time at the gym. There was no bad suit or Hawaiian shirt in sight, just a black sweater, dark jeans, and loafers. With his dark blond hair, blue eyes, and even features, the PI had the type of face that was attractive enough to be pleasant but not so attractive you’d remember him.

  In other words, exactly the sort of person who could blend into the crowd, asking questions that wouldn’t get a second look.

  “Thanks for coming,” Seth said, extending a hand toward the guest chair and inviting Tommy to sit.

  “Not a problem,” the other man said affably, sitting down. “Lots of fakers out there. Always happy to give my clients whatever validation they need to feel comfortable.”

  Seth had contacted the PI by email a few weeks earlier, but had held back on actually making the move. Hell, even now he still wasn’t sure it was the right thing to do, but he was losing sleep over the thought of his sister marrying this asshole, and he didn’t know what else to do.

  Still, comfortable was a bit of a stretch.

  Seth wasn’t sure any man would feel comfortable with the fact that he was about to hire someone to spy on his sister. Well, not his sister so much as the man she’d decided on.

  But wasn’t that just as bad?

  Hell, maybe even worse. It was flat-out saying that he didn’t trust Maya’s judgment.

  Or Brooke’s, for that matter.

  Which on paper made Seth a complete asshole.

  And yet, no matter how hard he tried, and Seth had tried, he couldn’t shake the pervading sense low and dark in his gut that Neil Garrett was not the right man for his sister.

  There were plenty of areas in life where his sister bested him. Charm. Wit. Likability. She was better at tennis, golf, and chess. She was a better cook and could negotiate like nobody’s business.

  But when it came to reading people, Maya was too trusting. Giving people the benefit of the doubt they didn’t deserve. That was where he came in.

  “So your email said your sister’s gotten in with a bad guy,” Tommy said as both men settled in their respective seats and studied each other.

  Seth gave a curt nod. He’d gotten Tommy’s name from Dennis, an old college buddy, who’d hired the man to follow a cheating now ex-wife. Cliché, yes, but then the twenty-two-year-old ex had been a bit of a cliché, too, carrying on with a half dozen of Dennis’s wealthier friends, likely to hedge her bets when he eventually dumped her.

  Which he had.

  Point was, Dennis had trusted Tommy, and Seth trusted Dennis.

  “You mind if I take notes?” Tommy asked, pulling an iPad out of his briefcase.

  Seth waved his permission.

  “So this boyfriend—”

  “Fiancé,” Seth corrected curtly.

  Tommy nodded and tapped something. “Name?”

  “Neil Garrett.”

  “And you don’t like him.”

  “I do not.”

  Tommy continued to tap. “Gut reaction? Or something specific?”

  “Gut reaction,” Seth said, grateful that he didn’t have to explain it. Grateful that he didn’t have to say out loud that he was having his sister’s choices researched without so much as a shred of evidence that the man she was marrying was anything less than smitten with her.

  “The gut often knows best,” Tommy said with a nod. “How long’s Garrett been in the picture?”

  “They got engaged after dating for three months. Casually, apparently, as I wasn’t even aware of the guy. They’ve been engaged for about a month now. So, four months altogether,” Seth said.

  Saying aloud that Neil and Maya had been engaged for a month made Seth realize that he’d only known Brooke
for a little under a month.

  Which seemed strange.

  Strange, because she’d managed to wiggle more determinedly into his life and under his skin in the span of thirty days than Nadia had in three years.

  The realization was unsettling, although not entirely unwelcome.

  “Your sister is wealthy?” Tommy said, his tone matter-of-fact.

  Seth nodded once.

  “And Garrett. Employed?”

  Seth shrugged. “Apparently he’s starting up his own business. But whenever I’ve pressed for details, I can’t get so much as a name, much less a sense of when he starts to plan making money from it.”

  “ ‘Investment mode’?” Tommy said with a little smile, making air quotes around the words.

  Seth snorted. “Exactly.”

  “Anything else I need to know?” Tommy asked. “Where the guy’s from, what his schedule’s like?”

  Seth shook his head. “I’m not entirely sure. He and I aren’t exactly cozy. I know he’s been out of town on work lately. Investment opportunities or some bullshit. Seems to be more often than not, but I don’t have a sense on specifics.”

  Tommy nodded, tapped something else on his iPad. “That’s where I come in. My job is to get the specifics and get them to you so you can make an informed decision about the next steps you need to take.”

  Seth swallowed. He was doing this. He was really going to hire this man.

  Tommy slid his iPad back into his bag and then leaned forward, the alert sharpness of his expression telling Seth that there was a shrewdness hiding behind the easy smiles.

  “All you have to do is say the word, and I’m on it,” Tommy said.

  Seth gave a half smile. “Why do I get the feeling there’s a warning in there somewhere?”

  Tommy didn’t smile back. “I’m discreet. Your sister and Garrett will never know I’ve looked into him unless you want them to.”

  “But?”

  “But, the toll of these things often isn’t paid by the person I’m following.”

  “Believe me, I’m very aware who’s paying for this,” Seth replied wryly. Tommy Franklin was not cheap.